


Deuxième Choix

by Shirai_Phoenix



Category: Vampire Knight
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Anal Fingering, Anal Sex, Bottom!Zero, Businessman!Kaname, Cheating, Eventual Aidou x Yuuki, Eventual Kaname x Zero, F/M, Gay Sex, Infidelity, Initial Kaname x Yuuki, M/M, Rido and Juuri aren't siblings, Top!Kaname, Waiter! Zero, Yaoi, mentioned Haruka x Juuri, mentioned Rido x Shizuka
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-24
Updated: 2016-03-01
Packaged: 2018-05-22 23:20:06
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,957
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6097270
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shirai_Phoenix/pseuds/Shirai_Phoenix
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Kaname?"</p><p>"Hmm?"</p><p>"Are you cheating on me?"</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapitre Un

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, beautiful creatures. Welcome to yet another Vampire Knight fan fiction, because I apparently am unable to finish one story before starting another. 
> 
> ANYWAY. Just a warning for y'all: this story contains acts of infidelity. If that makes anyone uncomfortable, I am terribly sorry and just know that I hate the act of cheating with a passion.

 

The first time Kaname met Zero was at one of his favorite restaurants. The brunet had gone out to celebrate his third anniversary with his wife, Yuki, and Zero had been their server for the night. Thinking back, Kaname found it kind of funny how the silveret had managed to get his attention in less than a second when it took him over a year of courting to even look at his wife as a potential love interest.

Out of all the beautiful things the brunet had been surrounded with—the fancy French design of the restaurant, with its wonderful arches and paintings and statues; the delicious food, presented and cooked to perfection; the calm, romantic atmosphere; his beautiful, lovely wife—only Zero had stood out to him.

Maybe it was because Kaname was used to seeing refined, sophisticated surroundings on a daily basis, so his eyes were just desensitized to the glamorous life. Born and raised in a family that ranked high in society, the young brunet had always been pampered and treated like a little prince; whatever he asked for, his parents and servants would provide him, and it would always be with the best quality. Even when he'd met Yuki, the girl had been presented to him wearing a beautiful dress that accentuated her innocent features and feminine grace, as if she were a ritual sacrifice for the most powerful of Gods.

Zero was none of that. He was rogue, acting out of his own volition, never taking orders from anyone (except for his boss, but that's a given). He possessed none of the grace Kaname had grown so accustomed to, none of the aristocracy he'd spent his whole life in. And yet, for some strange reason, garnet eyes didn't once stray from the waiter throughout the whole night.

Kaname had been mesmerized by the man's silky, silver hair, the color so enchanting in its anomaly. It made his eyes stand out, a warm lavender that never once betrayed his emotions, a color quite becoming on him. He was tall, but not scrawny, filling out his dark uniform quite well, and Kaname had caught himself more than once staring at the boy's rather pleasant ass as he walked away from their table. Each time he would feel guilty, eyes immediately snapping towards his wife, only to see that she was either engrossed in her food or making comments on the restaurant's elegant furniture, and he would let out a small sigh of relief.

Zero's voice was melodic, Kaname observed as the silveret kept coming to their table, asking if they needed anything else—he never once tried to hide his real emotions behind the fake smile the other waiters seemed to have mastered so well, and the brunet was once again charmed by such an unprofessional attitude. It was deep, but not unpleasantly so, and carried the edge of youth of someone who was only beginning to step foot in their twenties. Kaname had wondered if the job had perhaps been just a part-time one, but he never bothered asking—it wasn't polite, for one, and he had no  reason  to start such a personal conversation with their server when he was supposed to instead direct all his attention to his wife .

"Kaname, is something wrong?" Yuki's sweet voice had startled him out of his thoughts, eyes immediately meeting her big, brown ones filled with concern.

Kaname had forced a gentle smile on his face, swiftly replying with, "No, dearest, everything is fine."

When Yuki had smiled at him, not once doubting his word (for she loved him so much that she could never think of him as a liar), the brunet had made it his top priority to regard only her for the rest of their evening. They exchanged sweet words of love, held hands over the table, toasted to yet another year of marriage, and when it was time to leave Kaname had left a one-hundred-dollar bill tip for the gorgeous waiter.

Yuki had given him a raised eyebrow and commented, “Isn’t that too much?”

Kaname had smiled at her, hiding the real reason behind the large tip under false pretenses. “I’m feeling generous tonight.”

The petite brunette had beamed up at him and kissed his cheek, and swiftly turned to exit the restaurant so she could get in the car first (Yuki had never been fond of proper etiquette so she tended to disregard the whole “let me open the door for you” stereotype). Kaname, too, had been about to follow her when he was suddenly stopped by the waiter.

“Sir!” the silveret had called after him, and the young Kuran had turned around to look at him with smoldering burgundy eyes. Zero had taken a deep breath, taken aback by the intensity if his gaze. “The tip,” he’d said, almost stuttering and hating himself for it. He’d held the bill in front of the brunet. “I can’t take this, it’s too much.”

Kaname had felt the corner of his lips twitch into a barely-there smile and reached out to wrap long fingers around the waiter’s wrist, pushing his hand towards his chest and holding it there. “You gave us a wonderful service tonight,” he’d murmured in a low timber, and the black in Zero’s eyes had expanded just a tad bit more. “You’ve earned it, so keep it.” He’d hitched to reach out and brush his fingers against the silveret’s jaw, but instead settled on giving his wrist one last squeeze before turning around to leave. He’d looked over his shoulder one last time to purr a low, “Have a good night, Zero”, and was gone.

That night, when the married couple had gotten home, they spent the night like any other couple on their anniversary would: wrapped in each other’s embrace.

She fell asleep to the sound of his voice, a gentle smile on her face as she cuddled up to his side, angelic and beautiful as always.

He fell asleep to silver and lavender, piercings and tattoos, and dreamed of a rogue man whispering his name like only a lover would.

 


	2. Chapitre Deux

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Their second encounter was...quite the accidental one.

Their second encounter was...quite the accidental one—literally. Zero was trying to cross the street at the last second in his hurry when a black Mercedes screeched to a loud halt barely two feet away from him. The sound of tires scraping against asphalt was so loud in his ears that the silveret almost had a mini heart attack at the sudden realization that he'd been two seconds away from getting run over. In his buzzed, adrenaline-filled mind, Zero's anger started to spike, even though he knew that it was technically  _his_ fault for the almost-accident.

Just as he was about to open his mouth and start yelling profanities at the driver, the door on the driver's side opened, and the words died in his throat when a very familiar and incredibly attractive man stepped out of the luxury car. Dressed in a form-fitting, dark navy pinstriped suit was none other than Kaname Kuran, the man he'd served at the restaurant only a couple weeks ago. The brunet, although perfect in appearance, had a quite distressed look on his face as he approached the stock-still white-haired man. "Jesus Christ, are you okay?" he asked frantically, running a hand through his brown locks. 

Zero snapped out of his reverie just in time to see the older man lay a hand on his shoulder to squeeze the living shit out of it. "Oh, I—uh..." His mouth opened and closed a few times before he finally formed the right words. "I think I need to sit down."

There was a hint of a smile on Kaname's lips as he agreed to the idea, offering immediately to take Zero to the nearest coffee shop to buy him breakfast as a means of apology. Politeness told Zero to refuse, but the near-death experience had apparently shaken him enough that he accepted the offer almost instantly. It didn't hurt that he got to sit in the businessman's fancy-ass car the whole time, the seats warmed up enough to make the short ride that much more comfortable.

The cafe they went to was a simple yet cozy coffee shop at the corner of one of the main streets in downtown Tokyo, and of course Kaname offered to pay for the both of them.

"I can pay for my own shit, you know," Zero had complained as he scanned the menu above the counter, momentarily forgetting to watch his language in his distraction.

Kaname raised an eyebrow at him, the gesture going unnoticed by the silveret, but responded nonetheless. "I don't doubt it for a second, but it's the least I could do for almost running you over.

"It was partially my fault, I wasn't paying attention where I was going." The younger male finally turned to look over at the tall brunet, trying his best to ignore the fact that he smelled fucking divine and looked even more attractive from up close. 

"You were," Kaname agreed easily, ignoring the look of disbelief on Zero's face. "You looked like you were in a hurry; you don't have anywhere important to be at, do you? I wouldn't want to keep you away from important business."

The silveret shrugged one shoulder and stepped forward when the line moved closer to the counter. "Only my math class, but we're not doing anything of importance in it, so I can afford to skip it for one day. My second class is the one I'm looking forward to going to, but that doesn't start in two hours." He looked up at Kaname again and smirked a lopsided grin. "We're good on time."

Kaname's own lips curved into a smile at the silveret's attitude, but said no more as it was finally their turn to order. He watched silently as Zero called for a piece of red velvet cake and a caramel macchiato (with extra caramel, because apparently he had quite the killer sweet tooth) and then ordered a simple double-shot cappuccino for himself. He got a bit of a weird stare from the cashier when he handed her his black credit card, but he ignored it like he always did when he shopped at "non-luxurious" places. They were seated into a little table at the corner of the cafe in a matter of minutes, drinks (and cake) in hand as they made their way over to the private spot. It was situated right by the large windows with a clear view on the buzzing streets, well illuminated by the bright sunlight. There was a popular pop song playing softly though the speakers, the music mingling well with the animated chatter of the other patrons.

Kaname was the first one to strike up conversation, asking Zero the basic questions: name, origins, career, school...

The silveret was surprisingly open about his life, sharing as much information as he requested in turn from the brunet, and their chat only grew deeper from there. As they talked, Kaname learned that Zero had an identical twin, Ichiru, that was only a few minutes younger than him and that the two had been really close since their childhood days. He learned that their parents had died when they were both young, so their godfather, a man by the name of Yagari Touga, had become their legal guardian and had taken care of them ever since.

"He's currently a high school teacher at Cross Academy, and going out with the Headmaster, Kaien Cross."

Kaname had tilted his head in curiosity at that. "That sounds a little awkward."

Zero shrugged. "Not really. I mean,  _yeah_ , it is awkward when I accidentally catch them making out around the house every now and then, but other than that Kaien is pretty cool. He makes Yagari happy first and foremost, and that's what's really important." 

Kaname had respected that answer and closed the topic with that, starting up the questions again and learning more about the silver-haired man sitting in front him. Zero told him that he was majoring in the Culinary Arts at his college, in hopes of becoming a chef and one day open his own little pastry shop,  _Rose._

"At first I actually wanted to call it  _Bloody Rose_ ," he confessed with a sheepish smile. "But then I figured I wouldn't be getting many customers with such an intimidating name, so I just left it at  _Rose_ _._ "

The businessman chuckled lowly at that, shaking his head in amusement as he took a sip of his coffee. "I think you made the right choice there, Kiryuu-kun. The word 'bloody' doesn't necessarily sound good anywhere, especially not where food is involved."

Zero cracked a smile at the comment, too. "Hey, that would make a pretty badass name for a tattoo parlor, though."

"I won't deny that, you are absolutely right."

"But enough talking about me, Mr. Mysterious. Tell me about you, now."

And that's how Kaname delved into his own story, telling the silveret about his small group of friends—the only true friends he's ever had since his high school days—and that he was the vice president of _Artemis_ , a fashion design enterprise that was fairly popular among the youth. "We're stationed pretty much all over the world, but mostly in the States and in Europe. Here in Japan we have the main Head Quarters in Tokyo and a few other major cities," he explained, sound like the important business man that he was.

"You know, it's really ironic you say that, because I happen to buy a lot of clothes by  _Artemis_. I like your style a lot," Zero admitted with an eyebrow raised in pleasant surprise. "Never thought I'd ever get to meet the vice president of the company."

Kaname let out a brief laugh. "Well, I'm sure glad to hear that. Although we have surveys that people fill out, it's not every day that you meet face-to-face with someone who actually wears our clothes."

"Zero Kiryuu at your service, I'm open seven days a week from nine to eleven, now accepting appointments," the younger of the two joked, a boyish grin gracing his lips.

Kaname chuckled once more and continued with his life story, delving into the topic of his own crazy family members. Told him that once upon a time his uncle, Rido Kuran, and father, Haruka, had fought over the same girl to win her affection. The fought over who bought the perfect Valentine's Day, over birthday gifts, jewelry, and his uncle had even bought Juuri a cat, once.

"In the end, though, mom chose dad over my uncle."

"Does your uncle still love her?" Zero asked as he took a bite of his cake.

"Of course he does, but he's not  _in_ love with her anymore. He's now married and expecting their first child—a boy." There was a gentle smile on Kaname's lips as he spoke, a smile that made Zero want to mirror the serene expression. 

"Sounds like he's happy."

"He is, he really is," the brunet confirmed. He took a short pause, just long enough to sip at his coffee before he continued. "He's never been giddier, and that's saying something considering I've known the man for an eternity."

 They chatted some more about some of their favorite things, but the conversation came to an end when Zero announced that he had to get going if he wanted to make it to his culinary class on time. Kaname offered him a ride, and he gladly accepted it. The drive to the college was fairly brief, but it was spent in pleasant silence between the two men. Heads turned their way when the Mercedes parked in front of the school lot, but neither paid them any attention.

"Thanks for the ride, Mr. Not-So-Mysterious," the silver-haired male said with a teasing smile as he slung his backpack over his shoulder and headed for the main doors. He kept walking until he was safely inside the confines of the college, not once turning around to spare the businessman a second glance.

Kaname was smitten.


	3. Chapitre Trois

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Their third encounter was a planned one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 17 degrees C is about 62 degrees F. I decided to use Celsius because that's literally what every other country in the world (including Japan) uses.

It was a Saturday morning like any other, sunny albeit a little windy, and the temperature was a steady seventeen degrees Celsius despite it being the middle of autumn. The house was empty and silent, save for the street noise coming through the slightly ajar windows and the quiet rustling of papers on the dinner table. Kaname sat at one of the chairs, reading glasses perched upon his nose as he looked down at the files in his hands, dressed still in his pajama pants and a long-sleeved shirt. He was alone in the house, Yuuki gone out for the day with her best friend, Yori, so he decided to get some work done during the weekend.

Or tried to, anyway, because no matter how hard he stared at the corporate files in his hands, his eyes kept straying from the boring paperwork to the little piece of ripped notebook paper sitting right next to his hand. Kaname had found the note a couple days after his last encounter with the silveret, on the day he'd gone to retrieve his pants from the laundry basket. It had been sitting in his pocket the whole time, and the ink had smudged and bled through in the washing machine, but the words were still somewhat readable. 

_'If you ever want to meet up again, here is my number - Zero'_

The businessman had read over those numbers so many times, they were already imprinted in his memory. More than once he'd caught himself reaching for his phone, but he'd always stopped himself at the last second. He honestly had no reason to call the silveret out of the blue like that, so he managed to ignore the note for the most part.

He also ignored the fact that he was still holding onto it, the thought of throwing the tiny piece of paper away never once crossing his mind.

* * *

_Shit, what the hell am I doing?_

Three days later found Kaname sitting at the edge of his bed, elbows on his knees, one foot tapping rapidly against the floor, and phone to his ear. Yuuki was gone for the whole week to visit her parents two towns over, and Kaname had stayed behind under the excuse that he had important business meetings to attend during that week, so he couldn't go.

 _Bullshit. Fucking bullshit_ , he'd thought to himself as he watched her board the train, guilt already eating up at his soul. He knew exactly why he didn't want to go with her, and that reason was a certain silver-haired waiter who'd been invading his dreams for far too many nights. Which led to the situation he was currently in, waiting with a ragged breath for his call to go through. Part of him desperately wished Zero wouldn't pick up the phone, so the brunet could discard the number and forget about him once and for all. Then he could focus on his wife again, would avoid going to that restaurant he so liked, even find a new place to get his coffee at. It would then be simply a matter of time before silver and lavender were erased from his memory.

Those hopes immediately went to shit the moment he heard the silveret pick up the phone.

 _"Hello?"_ Kaname heard his own breath leave him in a rush of air he hadn't even realized he'd been holding upon hearing the melodic voice. The hand holding up his cellphone was shaking, and he opened his mouth a couple of times to say something, but no words would make it out of his throat. _"Hello? Who's this?"_ he heard Zero ask again, but he still couldn't bring himself to speak up. Then he heard an annoyed sigh.  _"I'm going to fucking hang up if this is a prank call."_

"No, wait!" Silence followed Kaname's outburst, and he immediately began to regret every life choices that led him to that particular moment. "I-I'm sorry, I don't what I was—"

_"I was beginning to think you'd never call."_

It was amazing how that one simple sentence could make the brunet's heart stop in his chest, muting him once more. "I...I almost didn't," he admitted. He felt his body relax despite his nerves going haywire, shoulders slumping. His chest still hurt from how fast the organ inside his ribcage was beating, threatening to rip a hole through his bones.

On the other side of the line, Zero made a low humming noise.  _"What changed your mind?"_

Kaname wished he had the answer to that. "I don't know," he mumbled in the receiver.

The silver-haired man chuckled lightly.  _"Why don't I help you figure it out, then? Say...tomorrow? At eight?"_

The waiter sounded tentative, his tone light and friendly, and Kaname knew exactly why—he was giving him a chance to back out of the deal, a chance to end the call and never keep in touch with the younger man again. A chance that every rational part of his being was screaming at him to take, because  _you have a fucking wife, damn it, you've been together for three fucking years, what are you doing?_

"...there's a little Chinese restaurant not too far from the cafe we went to last time,  _The Dragonfly_.We could...we could meet there?" 

_No, no, no!_

_"Sounds lovely. I'll be there for sure."_

"I'll see you tomorrow, then."

Another giggle met his ears, sending a shiver down his spine.  _"Mm, you will. Goodbye, Kaname."_ Zero didn't wait for a response, simply hanging up after he spoke his farewells. 

_God, Kaname, what are you doing?_

The brunet closed his eyes and swallowed heavily, his chest uncomfortably painful. He laid down on the mattress and stared at the dark ceiling of his bedroom as if it held the answers to the universe. "What the fuck  _am_ I doing?" he whispered to the deafening silence.

No answer came his way.

* * *

The brunet was already sitting at a table when eight o'clock came around. He'd picked the most secluded area, one of the private rooms the place owned for when patrons wanted their privacy, and that's where Zero found him. The waitress that led the silveret to the table had given the two men a weird look before  leaving, probably wondering what the shit the two males were doing in private, but Kaname didn't pay her an ounce of attention. His eyes were trained on the white-haired boy and his drop-dead gorgeous appearance, mahogany eyes unable to look away at the way those grey dress pants hugged his long legs in just the right way. A periwinkle blue sweater and creamy white dress shirt complimented the overall look, making the silveret look formal yet still juvenile in his classy-casual attire. 

The confidence with which Zero walked over to Kaname's table was a sight to behold, the message behind those steady steps clear:  _I'm here and I'm not backing down._ It filled the brunet with something akin to pride, and he definitely found it to be an attractive trait.

When the silveret was only a foot away from him, Kaname rose from his seat and greeted him with a shake of the hand, albeit an awkward one. Zero looked amused at his flustered gesture, but played along and caught his hand in a firm grip. It almost felt as if he were meeting a client over dinner for a business meeting, and maybe, Kaname thought fleetingly, he would feel more comfortable if he treated it as such.

"I'm sorry, did I make you wait long?" Zero's voice brought him back out of his reverie. 

Kaname glanced down at his watch to see that the silveret had actually arrived ten minutes early to their meeting.  _Just how early did I get here?_ the brunet wondered with astonishment, and just a bit of horror. "Not at all, I got here only a few minutes before you."

_Liar, liar, pants on fire. You've been doing a lot of that, lately. How are you not scorched?_

The silver-haired waiter flashed him a boyish grin as he sat down. "I'm glad to hear that, I would have felt awful otherwise." The businessman almost envied the way Zero got comfortable in his chair so fast, reaching out to grab the glass of water that had already been filled by their hostess to quench his sudden thirst. He felt like a pre-pubescent teenager all over again, getting nervous over his first date. 

Was this a date? Could it be considered one despite the fact that Kaname was  _married_? He ran his thumb over the underside of his ring finger, only to remember that he'd taken off his wedding band as a last-minute decision before he'd left the house. The digit felt almost empty after three years of constantly wearing it, the phantom weight of the gold still present. But it also felt liberating, in a way, as if he could pretend to be someone else for that one night. 

Lavender orbs zeroed in on the businessman's left hand, noticing the lack of a ring that had been there their past encounters, but still able to notice the faint indentation left behind around the finger. Before he could open his mouth to ask, however, their waitress came back in. She greeted the two men in a very formal way, noticing the way they sat close to each other but not saying anything about it. Instead, she simply moved onto her well-practiced speech: the soup of the day, the best wine, the best meal, the all-you-can-eat buffet at the bar at the front of the restaurant. Once the two men ordered their plates, Kaname decided to get a bottle of red wine that would compliment their choice of meat well.

The waitress left with a slight bow and the males were left in their own privacy again.

"So..." Kaname cleared his throat, tapping his foot on the floor a couple times. "How's school going?"

Zero chuckled lightly. "It's going very well, actually. I totally aced my chemistry exam last week, and I've been learning many new tricks in the kitchen from my culinary class."

"That's great!" the brunet exclaimed, sounding genuinely happy with the news. "I wouldn't have expected anything different from you, though—I mean, you  _are_ incredibly clever, after all."

A bright smile curved the silveret's lips upwards, a light blush dusting his pale cheeks as he looked down at his lap, and Kaname was once again amazed by the sheer beauty of the man sitting in front of him. He honestly couldn't understand how a man with such looks could still be single, and yet there he was; having dinner with Kaname on a week night instead of going out clubbing and hooking up with men younger than the businessman. Not that Kaname was old, so to speak, but there was a good five-year difference between him and Zero, and whereas the silveret still had time to fool around and enjoy the life of a typical college student, Kaname was already tied down by family and had been for three years. His freedom had been over the day he said "I do" in front of God, but Zero...

Oh, Zero was pure, raw independence. He only answered to himself and lived by his own rules, so the older man was still finding it weird that he'd somehow found interest in him.  _Maybe it's because he knows you're unattainable. Youngsters nowadays seem to have a nick for things they can't obtain easily_ , he thought to himself.

"Are you always this charming?" Zero asked with a crooked smile, making Kaname blink away his thoughts. At his confused expression, Zero added, "You seem to be spacing out a lot, tonight. Anything on your mind?"

Kaname didn't say anything for a few seconds, simply staring into the silveret's eyes with a leveled gaze. Zero didn't appear to be mad or frustrated, but rather genuinely curious, and it made the brunet actually consider asking him the questions that had been floating in his mind all that time. He didn't get the chance to do so, thought, because the waitress returned only moments later with their scalding hot plates of food, while another waiter helped crack open the bottle of wine. He filled up the two men's glasses to about the halfway mark and left the bottle on the table when he was done, and Kaname and Zero thanked the two servers respectively.

They made idle chat as they started eating, breaking the ice and catching up on whatever had happened in their lives since the last time they'd met. And it was actually nice, the brunet found himself thinking as he laughed at the silveret's story about his brother, sitting down with an almost-stranger and letting go of all your problems for one night. He would treat this like a "men's night out," like any other encounter he'd have with his other friends, and that put him at ease for most of the night.

Until Zero dropped the bomb on them. 

"Tell me, Kaname," he drawled, picking up his wine glass and taking a slow sip of the burgundy liquid to elongate the pause. "Where's your ring?"

The taller male almost choked on the piece of meat he'd been swallowing upon hearing the question, thrown his way so casually that he actually had to take a moment to decide if he'd perhaps only imagined it or misheard the words. "I-I'm sorry, what was that?" he asked, hating himself for his stutter.

And then he felt something nudge his leg underneath the table, and it honestly didn't take a genius to realize it was Zero's shoe-covered foot gently rubbing at his shin. The unexpected move sent a jolt through Kaname's body, but he didn't move—he didn't  _want_ to. 

"Your ring," Zero repeated, acting as if he wasn't playing footsie under the table. But if Kaname looked close enough, he could see the glint of mischief darkening those vibrant orbs from a bright lilac to a deep amethyst. "You were wearing one the last time we saw each other, no? Do correct me if I'm wrong."

"No, you're...you're right. There was a ring on my finger the last time we saw each other."  _When 'we saw each other'. It makes it sound like we've been doing this for longer than just tonight._ "It's just not there tonight."

The albino—but could he really be considered albino when his hair was more of a light silver than a pure white?—hummed low in his chest, glancing down at the brunet's left hand in mild curiosity. "Did something happen...?" The question was tentative, Zero's attempt to test the waters and see how far he could take that particular conversation.

It took Kaname a bit longer to answer him this time. 'Something'? Kaname was practically  _cheating_ on Yuuki, did that count as  _'something'_ _?_ Did that dinner even count as cheating? What the hell was he doing... "No, nothing happened." Brief and polite, that's how his answers had slowly turned throughout the night. But he guessed it wasn't Zero's fault for being curious—what was the silveret thinking of him at that point?

As if able to sense his growing discomfort, Zero let out a soft, barely audible sigh and leaned back into his chair. He even retracted his foot from under the table and rapped his fingers against the tabletop. "I'm sorry, it's not my place to ask such thi—" The words caught in his throat when he felt a delicate hand touch his fingers, his eyes immediately snapping down to see Kaname's hand wrapping around his. 

"I  _am_ married, Zero," Kaname said, surprising the silveret with the blunt statement. "I've been married for three years, and she's gone to her parents' house for the whole week. And for whatever reason I called you to have dinner with you tonight, and it somehow didn't feel right to wear my wedding ring, so I took it off seconds before I walked out the door." The brunet's long fingers brushed against the younger man's wrist, and he could pick up the faint, yet rapid, heartbeat hidden just beneath the skin. He stared with wine-colored eyes as Zero's pale fingers twitched, finally closing around his own digits and squeezing them tightly in his grip. Kaname could hear his own frantic heart in his ears, and wondered for the millionth time that night  _what the fuck he was doing_. 

"W-Why are you here with me, Kaname." Zero whispered, his voice cracking slightly at the beginning. His wide gaze was full of inquisition. "If you're... _married_ , then why did you accept?"

Kaname gave him a lopsided smile. "I wish I had the answer to your question. But the truth is that even I have no fucking clue what the hell I'm doing. I should have said no—I  _should've_. But I didn't."

Zero scooted his chair closer to the table so he could lean forward and close the distance between him and Kaname. He watched the other man do the same, and felt the tips of their shoes make contact once more underneath the table. Except this time, instead of teasing touches, they fully entwined their legs in a more intimate way. "Tell me about her," he suddenly asked, shocking Kaname for the umpteenth time that night. 

"What? Zero, I don't think that's a good—"

"Kaname,  _tell me about her_. If..." he swallowed heavily, looking down at their interlocked fingers and giving them a squeeze. "If we're going to do this—whatever  _this_ is—then I want to know who I'm competing against."

And there it was, splayed out in the open: the reason behind their dinner, as clear as day. Kaname thought he'd be overcome by remorse and disgust, but all he really felt at the news was a rush of adrenaline and  _excitement_ that he hadn't felt in  _forever_. 

He cracked a small smile. "Competition?" he chuckled. "There  _is_ no competition." He saw the confusion in Zero's gorgeous eyes and explained further, "It was an arranged marriage. Yuuki—that's her name—and I knew each other when we were younger. Our parents had set our engagement since we were barely ten years old, even going as far as enrolling her to the same school as me when we were teenagers in hopes that I would grow to like her as a woman." Zero didn't interrupt, not even when Kaname paused to sip at his wine and wet his lips. "I believe it is safe to say that never was the case. She was—is—beautiful, but..."

"You just couldn't really get into her?" the silveret suggested calmly in a murmur. 

Kaname nodded. "But I also couldn't refuse her, not when both our families had such high hopes for the both of us. They were already planning our wedding by the time I graduated college, so calling off the engagement didn't cross my mind at that point. My parents would have been disappointed in me if I did, and I simply couldn't accept that. So we got married, and I've been staying with her until today. The first time I saw you, at the restaurant?" Zero nodded. "That was the night of our third anniversary."

At that, the silveret cringed slightly, his nose scrunching up. "That's...kind of fucked up," he finally said. 

"Yeah, you're telling me," the businessman replied with a low chuckle. 

"Do you love her?"

Kaname had been prepared for that question. "I do." When he saw the crestfallen expression on the waiter's face he was quick to add, "But not in the same way she loves me. I can't bring myself to look at her as more than just a little sister."

Something in Zero's demeanor changed at the words, his soft-spoken demeanor evaporating in thin air and making leeway for the seductive minx that had first walked into the restaurant. "Hmm," he hummed, the sound rumbling in his chest. "That's good."

The businessman raised an eyebrow. "'Good'?" he repeated, but his breath hitched quietly in the next second when he felt Zero scrape a perfectly trimmed fingernail down the back of his hand. It sent shivers up his spine that Kaname tried to cover up as a cough, but if the excited glint in Zero's lavender eyes was any indication, he'd failed miserably.

The silver-haired man tilted his head to the side and slid his foot higher up Kaname's leg in a long stroke. "It makes me feel less guilty for what's going to happen."

It was as if all air had been knocked out of his chest with that one simple sentence. The brunet's vision went blurry for a couple of seconds as he tried to catch his breath, his pounding heart echoing loud and clear in his ears. A hot rush of arousal zapped up and down his body like an electric shock, pooling in his groin and not going away as he'd hoped it would. He shifted in his seat, but didn't move away from Zero's reach, and willed himself to not get an erection in the middle of a public space. "W-What is supposed to happen tonight?" he asked, and wanted to die from embarrassment at how he stuttered. 

Zero grabbed his glass of wine and, just before he took a sip, murmured, "You should take me home, Kaname..."

The waitress made her way back into the room at that point, checking up on them, but all Kaname could focus on was Zero's pretty lips wrapped around the rim of the wine glass as he drank from it and the smoldering look in those gorgeous eyes that were still trained on his, waiting for a reaction. The heat that he had just barely been able to keep in check had flared up again, making his spine go rigid in a matter of seconds. He could pinpoint exactly the moment he threw inhibitions out the window, for his whole demeanor changed from the shy teenager he felt like to the twenty-six year old businessman he actually was. The waitress had been in the middle of asking the two men if she could get them another bottle of wine when Kaname suddenly interrupted her. "I'll have the check, please."

Even with the politeness thrown into the request, Kaname's voice still came out as a rough command. Zero bit his lip against the soft sound that wanted to escape as an immediate reaction to the dominant tone, the depth of it hitting a couple of his kinks  _just right_. When he put the glass down he teasingly ran his fingers down the stem of the cup, circling the base with his fingertips. Kaname's eyes zeroed in on the move, narrowing in a dark glare in the next second, and Zero almost shivered. The waitress had been standing there stock-still the entire time, still shocked at the sudden demand, especially because they'd technically only just  _got_ there. He turned to her with a feigned expression of concern and asked, "Miss?"

The young waitress blinked out of her stupor and immediately plastered a smile on her face. Zero knew right away it was fake, could see it in the way it didn't reach her eyes and made the corners of her lips look painfully stretched. He was well-practiced in the art of making your customers believe you actually gave a shit about how their food tasted, and all for the sake of a tip that at the end of the night wasn't even that great. "Oh, I'm so sorry," the lady apologized, bowing slightly. "I will be right back with your check. Would you like me to box anything up for you?"

Kaname was ready to shake his head no, but Zero felt like being a little shit. "Yes, please, I would love to take this home with me." He looked at Kaname when he said the last part of his sentence, and the implications behind his words were painfully obvious. 

_I would love to take him home with me._

The brunet's nostrils flared in a mixture of frustration and arousal, his foot tapping impatiently at the floor. He only spared the waitress a single glance as she grabbed Zero's plate and left, and he could barely keep his voice from being a growl when he turned back to the younger man. " _Tease_."

Zero grinned. "I plead guilty."

The didn't talk much after that, but the looks in their eye said it all. Although their waitress had been only gone for a couple of minutes, to the two men it was beginning to feel like forever. Even Zero had started to fidget in his seat, one of his hands rapping away at the table and the other still entwined with Kaname's. Under the table, the motion of their legs had turned to sensual strokes and nudges that sent Kaname's blood roil and had the silveret impatient. 

And finally, when their waitress came back with the check and Zero's food in a take-out bag, Kaname wasted no time in taking out his wallet and throwing a couple hundreds on the table that covered the bill and much more. Zero had already gotten up from his seat, holding his bag in front of his lap with both hands, and the brunet rounded the table to stand right in front of him. 

The student leaned forward by an inch, close enough to smell the man's expensive cologne, and murmured, "Take me home."

Kaname's jaw tightened, his eyes darkened. He grabbed Zero's hand and walked out the door.

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh i'm so sorry, were you expecting sex in this chapter? 
> 
> Aha. Ahahaha. HA. 
> 
> *sloth meme* Soon...


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